Ah. I hope you weren’t particularly attached to the idea of collecting all of CS:GO’s original decorated weapons, because you can’t – the drops they belonged to are now gone. Instead, Valve would like for you to become invested in catching an all-new set of colourful firepower.
If you’ve played CS:GO since Wednesday, there’s a chance you might already have come across one or two. The weapons are dropping right now, across six map-specific collections – Dust 2, Italy, Lake, Mirage, Safehouse and Train.
The change follows the introduction of 10 weapon collections in August’s Arms Deals update. Since then, items have beentradableand sellable via the Steam Marketplace.
Each decorated weapon has a unique finish and exterior condition, and can be enjoyed in minute mechanical detail via the in-game inspection menu. You’ll find that in the Steam Inventory, Community Market, and in Steam Trading.
Since the end of October, players have also been able to design their own weapon skins in the Steam Workshop – using “real-world finishing techniques,” no less.
“We reproduced spray-painted camouflaging, hydro-dipping, patinas, and more,” said Valve of their tools at the time. “We also wanted to represent what happens to weapon finishes in the field. Even the most durable finish gets chipped with heavy use, so every finish is available in a variety of states of wear.”
Proceeds from the eSports weapon collections in CS:GO’s shop, meanwhile, have helped fund the $250,000 prize pool for the ongoing 2013 DreamHack SteelSeries Championship, which began yesterday.
Witness live matches via the game’s Watch panel and you’re likely to be dropped an exclusive DreamHack souvenir package from on high. Each will contain a decorated weapon from the new set, uniquely marked by one of several event stickers.
By the way: if you’ve made it to this point as a non-CS:GOer, it might intrigue you to know that the game is 50% off on Steam this week. Tempted?